


In Which Lord and Lady Mael Go Shopping

by tanarill



Category: Original Work
Genre: Alternate Universe - Magic, Alternate Universe - Slavery, Anal Fingering, Anal Plug, Anal Sex, BDSM, Boys in Chains, Breasts, Chains, Cock Piercing, Cock Rings, Cock Tease, Comeplay, Cunnilingus, Dubious Consent, Dubious Ethics, Dubious Morality, Exhibitionism, Explicit Sexual Content, F/M, Finger Sucking, French Kissing, Fucking Machines, Genital Piercing, Hand Feeding, Implied/Referenced Dubious Consent, Kink Negotiation, Kissing, Knives, Lube, M/M, Magic-Users, Masturbation, Mirrors, Moaning, Multi, Mysticism, Neck Kissing, Negotiations, Nerdiness, Nipple Piercings, Nipple Play, Nipple Torture, Oil, Ownership, Piercings, Polyamory Negotiations, Possession, Prostate Massage, Punishment, Relationship Negotiation, Riding, Rules, Sensation Play, Sex Toys, Sexual Content, Sexual Slavery, Showers, Slavery, Spooning, Sticky, Tea, Temperature Play, Vibrators, Waxing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-21
Updated: 2016-09-21
Packaged: 2018-08-16 11:49:38
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 17,221
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8101330
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tanarill/pseuds/tanarill
Summary: This is a totally original work! The porn bunny bit me and would not leave until I wrote this, so I did.Warnings for dubious consent, seriously under-negotiated kink, a very unethical society underlying the whole premise, and lots and lots and lots of unrepentant porn.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This is a totally original work! The porn bunny bit me and would not leave until I wrote this, so I did.
> 
> Warnings for dubious consent, seriously under-negotiated kink, a very unethical society underlying the whole premise, and lots and lots and lots of unrepentant porn.

The thing about his lovely wife was the way she was so relentlessly _organized_. It was more or less why his master had approved of the two of them in the first place. Well, that and her strong if latent streak of Fire. It would, Denn had claimed, produce strong and powerful children. He was probably right about that, reflected Lord Mael, except for one or two inconvenient facts which probably wouldn't have been nearly as inconvenient if things had been different.

"What," said Lord Mael flatly.

"We'll need a sex slave," repeated Lady Mael calmly. Calmly was the way she did everything, unless it was earnestly. The people ate it up, which was why the Maels had a popular approval rating that would have made certain imperial analysts raise their eyebrows in disbelief.

He closed his eyes. This was such a bad idea, and yet - "Explain."

"You, me, and some sweet young thing in bed together," she said.

"You, me, some sweet young thing, and my toys?" he countered.

"The toys are just window dressing," said Lady Mael, which showed in six words that she understood him very much better than most of his peers. "If you want a few to make the mood, we can negotiate. I object on aesthetic grounds to permanent damage, and on sanitary ones to blood."

Lord Mael pinched the bridge of his nose. "And on grounds of safety to any of my - "

"Safety and incompatibility. I know _you_ make a habit of people who hate you, but I prefer a more positive relationship. It won't kill you, you know."

"It might," he said, but conceded the argument. "When do you want to go shopping?"

"We can have an overlapping clear spot in our schedules in a week."

"In a week, then," he said.

 

He didn't like the slave market - too much fear and despair pressing in on his mind at once - but he could put a wall around himself and deal with it. His wife was a pillar of serenity as she swanned past the rows and rows of unskilled slaves for manual labor, skilled slaves, general house slaves, brood slaves. He followed, grateful for the calm she shared with him.

(He'd had to ask, on the ride over. Lady Mael had explained to him quite early on in their marriage negotiations that he was not allowed to waltz into her mind without permission unless it was literally life-or-death. He respected her enough not to; in return when he asked, she mostly allowed him in.)

The sex slave rows were better, and worse. The fear was less stifling, more apprehensive. Greater than half of the offerings on display had been trained to this, and weren't worried about an uncertain future. And there were the testing rooms off to the side, which were a haze of lust and pleasure. It wasn't enough to bother him, exactly. It was just . . . distracting.

They browsed, separately, and every so often called the other over to take a look. She vetoed the large, muscular men he preferred on the basis that the cognitive dissonance would be uncomfortable. She was probably right. He vetoed a couple of beautiful, delicate creatures; the whole point was to find a man they could share, not someone who might as well have been a girl. His lady wife at least at the grace to apologize. And then -

He wasn't looking in the right direction when it happened; he felt it solely through his wife, an invisible but palpable moment as the universe popped. He jerked his head around to find what had happened. It was a surprise to find that nothing had, just that she was looking at another slave. He was tall but lithe, skin the particular sort of pale that meant he didn't see the sun much, hair brown and curly, fine-featured. Not his sort of man at all. But not unattractive, either, if he let go of his usual tastes.

He walked over.

" - nly twenty," the factor was saying. "So he's got a good few years left in him. And he's on record as having a mechanical specialty, so he won't be totally useless even without his looks."

The slave in question was standing placidly. There was gold at his ears, his nipples, his cock. He was looking demurely at the floor, but was not as calm as he appeared. Well, who would be, in his place?

"Hm," said Lady Mael, and said to him, "Ah. Husband. I was just about to go looking for you."

"I know," he said, picking up the slave's record and reading it. Mittan stock, born and raised to the market. Probably they'd been training him as a mechanic, which explained the specialty, before an abrupt redesignation as a sex slave at fourteen. Puberty hit him well, then. Four years of training, focused primarily on servicing women - no wonder, with features like that - but he knew the basics of sex with men. Purchased new at eighteen, sold twice in as many years. For a slave as pretty as him, that probably spoke to some personality problem, although the record did show that the first resale occurred after his owner went bankrupt in some bad investments. He looked up from the folio and addressed the slave directly. "Do you speak?"

"When ordered," said the slave softly, voice hoarse with disuse.

He turned back to his wife, and raised an eyebrow.

She turned a few pages in the record, and tapped the page. He read.

"Mm," he said. "Tempting. Of course, we can't make a purchase without trying him ourselves."

"Of course not," said the factor. "There are several types of available rooms - "

"One with a bed," said Lady Mael. "And a selection of - toys."

"A large bed," he added. "And only a small selection."

"This way, please," said the factor.

Renting the room and its contents for some hours was inexpensive. Generally, in these markets, they were: the market wanted to move product, after all. The slave came with them easily enough, and continued to stare at the ground. Lady Mael took care of the business quickly, and they were shown down a corridor to quite a nice room. His wife, once the door was shut, turned to him and said, "That's a _small_ selection?"

He had to admit, a whole wall of toys wasn't the smallest selection. "As a proportion of available options, it's small."

"Right," said Lady Mael, and turned her back to him. "Buttons."

Her outfits always looked as though she should have to be sewn into them, and then the stitches unpicked at the end of the day. In reality, although they were a two-person job, it took less than five minutes. His armor was more difficult, but they got if off him and racked quickly as well. He looked to his side, and caught the slave lowering his head. He _had_ been staring.

"Slave," he said.

"Yes," said the slave.

"Do you have a name?"

The slave shrugged. "I'm called whatever my owner wishes."

"That wasn't the answer to the question I asked," he said. "Let's try again. Do you have a name?"

There was a moment of quiet, and then the slave admitted, "Yes."

"Mm," said his wife. "We won't ask now. Pick something for us to call you. Something simple."

"Ken," said the slave. Ken.

"Interesting choice," he said. "If you speak Mittan, which I do." Ken's head came up for a moment before he remembered to look at the ground. So there was a person under there after all. But he'd known that. "Say the thing you just didn't say."

"Not many around here know Mittan."

"Say it again. Properly," demanded Lady Mael. She was perceptive, his wife, even sitting nude at the edge of the bed. He could appreciate that on purely aesthetic grounds, she was beautiful. Ken glanced at her, and then did a double-take. After a moment, she made a shooing gesture. "Go on."

"Not many slaveowners know Mittan," said Ken grudgingly, as though the words were being pulled from his mouth like teeth.

Lady Mael smiled. "There you go. Honesty deserves a reward, doesn't it, husband?"

"Indeed," he said, and pulled Ken in for a kiss.

Ken came willingly enough, and was good at kissing. In a way. But for all his skill, there was no true passion there, no desire. Not for him, anyway.

Not yet.

He let the kiss end but pulled back only far enough to whisper against those lips, "Just feel" and then took another. He made this one longer, slower, more coaxing; this was, after all, supposed to be a reward. Ken was blatantly confused, trying to find what he wanted and give it to him instead of just taking the simple pleasure offered. It took a little while for Ken to understand that what he wanted was the same as what he was offering, and then he made small noise, shocked, almost wounded, and deepened the kiss into something warmer and more hungry. He let the slave lead, gently sucking at his tongue, before pulling back. "Better," he said, smiling warmly.

Ken reached up to touch his lips, then aborted the motion.

"It's okay," he said, and took Ken's arm and lifted it the rest of the way. "I told you to feel, and I meant it."

"I," said Ken. "That." He looked sideways, to where his lady wife was watching them with very dark eyes, one hand between her legs.

"See?" she said. "You get a reward for telling the whole truth, and you enjoy it and he enjoys it and I enjoy it and everyone wins. Let's try another. Do you want another kiss?"

There was a pause. Ken said, "Yes, but." He paused, then added, almost shyly, "I want to kiss you."

Lady Mael met his eyes, briefly, and moment of perfect understanding passed between them. He said, "Hard to do, from over here. We should join her. It's a big bed."

It was an enormous bed, suitable for an orgy. Ken waited until he stepped forward and then followed him, pale skin flushed all the way down. Once they'd crossed those few steps, though, he turned shy again. "May I?"

"Mm-hm," said Lady Mael, patting the coverlet next to her.

Ken sat and, carefully, as though not sure of his welcome, leaned in to kiss.

He didn't, as a rule, find people who weren't him having sex particularly interesting to watch. This, however, was: Ken, who knew how to fake passion but not, it turned out, display the real thing; and his wife, who had more or less taught him how to kiss. It wasn't titillating, not in the gauche pronographic sense, but it was compelling. When she ended the kiss, Ken didn't pull back, immediately leant in and began nibbling along the elegant line of her throat.

He wrapped a hand in those curls and tugged. Ken shivered, a whole-body motion that had nothing to do with temperature, and turned his head to look askance.

"You do have to ask," he explained.

"Unless we arrange ahead of time for that kind of game," added Lady Mael.

"Which we didn't," he said.

"No," she agreed, and turned to Ken. "What's a good punishment?"

It was a little bit genius of her. He'd probably have missed the mark and gone for something too harsh. But it was a lesson Ken needed. So soon on the end of their first lesson, that they rewarded honesty, and with Ken so desperate to please . . . He'd properly balance the transgression against the fact that he hadn't known it was a transgression. He'd take his correction willingly in anticipation of the reward immediately to follow. And it would follow, immediately, because they weren't quite done with the first.

Ken bit his lower lip. "I. _Hate_ it when people play with my nipples. So. That."

He drew a quick breath, almost a gasp.

Lady Mael said, "It hurts so much?"

"No," said Ken quickly, and took a slower breath. Composed his thoughts. "Hurt isn't the right word. It didn't do anything until they pierced them, and now it's. Intense. Not nice and not painful, but I can't - think, can't pay attention to anything else - when that's happening."

"You can't go away in your head," she said.

Ken nodded.

Lady Mael met his eyes again, briefly. He nodded, and said, "Come sit in my lap. Facing out."

Ken hurried to obey, settling himself in the hollow formed by his crossed legs. "Before we begin, what are we punishing you for?"

"For," said Ken. "For acting without checking that - she wanted it."

"Good," he said. "Go ahead and move if you need to," and reached around with both arms.

Nipples didn't do much for him. Well, of course not, if they did he'd probably be into women and the whole issue would be mostly nonexistent. But, depending on the person, they were sensitive, and that did a lot for him. He squeezed, not hard enough for it to be a pinch, and caught the rings to tug just a little. The effect was immediate, Ken going the kind of still that was a flight-or-fight response unable to pick an option. He kept going, rolling the nubs between thumbs and forefingers. Twisted a little. Ken's head fell back against his shoulder, his mouth open, breathing rapidly. He took his time, focusing on one and then the other, feeling his arousal grow with every gasping pant. Even when he wasn't paying attention to a given nipple, his fingers were never out of contact, dragging gently teasing patterns on the skin with his nails. Ken jerked, not trying to get away so much as an involuntary contraction of muscles by someone who wasn't in control. Fascinated, he did it again, let his nails catch on the pink flesh. Ken did something like a full-body twitch, breath coming faster, heartbeat thudding beneath his flushed skin.

"Husband," said Lady Mael, and he looked up to meet her eyes, which were very dark, and see that she'd just licked her lips, which were very wet.

Oh.

"Deep breath," he said, and it was a long, long moment before Ken was able to focus and understand the words, but then obediently took a slow breath. He pinched, both nipples squeezed well past of the point of discomfort and into pain, and then he rolled his fingers to bring his nails into play.

Ken arched against his chest until the only points of contact were where Ken's neck rested on his shoulder and where Ken's ass was rubbing against his erection, until his spine couldn't flex any more. Then, and only then, did a thin, high whine escape the back of the slave's throat. He held it for a another few heartbeats, and let go. Ken slumped back against him, mouth open, panting.

He turned his head and kissed the slave's cheek. Ken blinked, closed his mouth and swallowed and then opened it to pant again less harshly.

"You did very well," he said. "And for telling the truth about the right punishment, you deserve another reward. No, don't move," he added, as Ken began to tense again.

Lady Mael put her fore- and middle fingers in that mouth and said, "Suck."

Ken closed his lips around her fingers. He didn't hollow his cheeks doing it, but it was reasonably obvious that he was licking them too, getting them nice and wet. They were shiny when she removed them and reached to tug at his cock.

Ken moaned when she did, trembled in his arms. It was possible, given how he described nipple play and how gone he still was, that he hadn't even been aware of his erection. He was aware of it now, struggling to lift his head so he could watch. Lady Mael only worked him for a little while, maybe a minute, before pulling away and sitting back on her legs.

"And now some questions," she said.

"Yes," said Ken. Begged.

"How long can you go now without an orgasm?"

"As long as you want me to," said Ken.

"Really?"

"I - won't come without permission. I, if it's just like this, I won't - stay hard forever. But I. I don't. I never. My previous owners weren't interested in . . . "

"We," he said, "are _very_ interested."

Ken's dick flexed visibly. Then he licked his lips and said, "I don't. Think staying hard is going to be a problem. Actually."

"Good," said Lady Mael. "Next: what are you best at?"

It was a very specific question, for being so open-ended. Ken's eyes went distant again. "One thing?" he asked.

"One thing," she confirmed.

"I. My mouth. I mean. I'm not bad at coupling, but. A cock is a cock." He gestured to the wall of toys, which had, indeed, some very realistic cocks. And some which weren't so realistic. "My previous owners. Said my tongue is my best feature."

"Hm," said Lady Mael. "I can't help but suppose neither of them were very interested in your skill at _coupling_ with a male, though."

"A few times," said Ken, and then admitted, "But I'm not good at it, no."

"Do you want to be?"

He saw Ken bite back the first response, probably something proper and demure about a slave's duty, and actually consider the question. "I don't. When I was learning, there was - they spent time. Getting ready. So it didn't hurt, except for when I was learning how to work through it. I didn't, since then, I didn't get warning. Any of the times. It was - I was not good." It hurt, Ken meant, and in the possibly physically damaging way of which he disapproved immensely. "It's. Not a skill I'd mind learning, I think. If it was you. I'm sorry, that wasn't a very good answer."

"It's not the sort of question you get asked much, I imagine," he said, and kissed Ken's cheek again. "We appreciate your honesty." He looked to his wife, but she made a little shooing motion. He raised an eyebrow.

She huffed out a sigh, but said, "And what my husband is not saying is that he _enjoys_ buying undertrained slaves and rectifying that, Fire knows why."

"Oh," said Ken.

Lady Mael nodded. "One more question for now. We're going to have you together, between us. With that in mind, what do you think should happen next?"

Ken took a quick breath, but also took a moment to actually think the question through. Then he said, "Two things. I. They've been having me prepare and wear a toy to stay open, but I - it's only supposed to keep me from, um, _physical_ damage. It's not really enough slick. So I should fix that." He felt his dick twitch again, right at the cleft of Ken's ass. Ken swallowed, visibly, and licked his lips again. "And also, you should - use my mouth."

This time, when his wife looked at him, the question was perfectly obvious. "Both excellent suggestions," he said. "Except that your pronouns are wrong. _I_ will fix the slick. Up on your knees."

Ken shrugged himself up, a single graceful motion that ended with a very nice ass rolling firmly against his erection for a moment before Ken landed on his knees. He checked to see that Lady Mael had caught it; she had. He tipped his head toward the wall.

"Stay here," she said, and rolled over to follow him. "No peeking."

"So?" he whispered once she got close enough.

"I think I was wrong about not liking . . . what you do. Not if that's what you do, with your men." She'd, after the first disastrous time, not ever wanted to be in the room during one of his sessions. He hadn't pressed the issue, but now he wondered if he should have.

"He's exceptionally sensitive," he murmured, and picked a couple of things off their shelves. "Which of these do you think will look better on him?"

Lady Mael looked at the cuffs. "The black. He flushes red. Husband - "

He nodded; she was right. "Black, then." He put the red ones back, took his other selections, and also picked up a bottle of slick. The good kind. He turned.

"Husand!" said Lady Mael, much louder.

"Wife," he said. "This is not the time for negotiations."

She nodded, accepting the basic premise. "But we _will_ talk again. On the way home."

"On the way home, and after," he agreed, and climbed back on the bed, dumping the objects in a disorganised pile. He picked up the cuffs, and held them in front of Ken's face. "Arms out. You will tell me when they're snug, not tight. I don't want to risk cutting off circulation."

"Yes," said Ken.

The cuffs went on easily enough, one to each bicep and another to each wrist. Ken made a short noise of question when he tugged both arms behind the slave's back, but relaxed when he clipped the pairs of cuffs together and let the steel take the tension. By then, his wife was back on the bed, settling herself to watch what he was doing curiously. The chain had carabiner clips at both ends, and small, smooth links. He attached one to the carabiner holding the wrist cuffs together, then stood up briefly to thread the other end through the loop in the ceiling. Good playroom, he thought, absently. "Now lean forward," he said. "All the way, like you will when you'll be licking my wife."

He could see when Ken and Lady Mael got it. His wife grinned at him, and shimmied forward so that Ken wouldn't have to approximate the distance. Ken licked his lips and leant forward carefully, testing the chain as it took his weight. He let it out slowly, a few links at a time, to made sure they got the right length.

When they did, Ken said, "Here," just as Lady Mael said, "Oh!" He nodded to her, pleased that he'd picked almost exactly the right size chain, and clipped it to itself, then backed up to observe the effect. Without the simple pulley, Ken would have overbalanced and fallen forward instantly. With it, his torso merely swayed gently as he flexed his shoulders, getting a sense of the strain. It was going to be uncomfortable sooner rather than later, but that was part of the point. For the final touch, he reached around and hooked a little twenty-gram weight to each of Ken's nipple rings. Ken made a shocked noise. Twenty grams wasn't much, perfect for a beginner, and with the way he was restrained the weight would mostly be on the bed anyway. But they would be there, a persistent drag, tailored to this beginner's sensitivities.

He sat back, observing, and then said, "Go ahead and get started."

He couldn't really see, and to be honest didn't particularly want to, but his wife said, "Mm. Slow down. _Taste_ ," and Ken very definitely whimpered, so that was fine.

He said, "He likes it when you tug on his hair," and then turned his attention to Ken's very nice ass. There _was_ a toy, plain white plastic with a crescent-shaped flange. He pulled it out gently, and found that even at the widest it couldn't have been more than three centimeters. It tapered, long and narrow; Ken had absolutely been telling the truth when he'd said it was meant to keep him open but not really stretched. He laid it aside and slicked his fingers with the thick, greasy lube.

Ken did try to clench when he began the stretch with two fingers, but whether it was an attempt to keep him out or to bear down was unclear. Either way, it didn't stop him, as he scissored his fingers and thought about the burn that Ken should be feeling in his shoulders by now. It was, perhaps, a bit much sensation all at once for someone who could be pushed over into endorphin space with just a little nipple play. On the other hand, Ken had suggested two-thirds of it himself, and since he was undoubtedly still buzzed, it should all blend together to make an experience that would ruin him for anyone else.

Good. Lord Mael might be willing to share with his wife. He was not willing to share beyond her.

The third finger went in with almost no additional pressure, and was probably just a formality, but as much as he enjoyed hurting his men, he liked doing it _deliberately_. So he did that for a while, pressing in and stroking the hot clingy tightness. He even, from the way Ken tensed, got his prostate a couple of times. He pulled out his fingers, wiped them on the coverlet.

"Doing okay?" he asked.

Ken hummed an affirmative. His wife moaned, "His _mouth_."

"Do you want to come now, or with his cock?"

"Both," said Lady Mael, giving him a wet smile to show she meant it.

He said, "Oh. Then I'll wait."

"Mm. Tell me."

He blinked and looked at her. Really, his wife was amazing. He was going to enjoy teaching her all about pain and pleasure and ways of blending the two. "Going to have to unchain him. Putting that kind of strain on his shoulders, without building up to it, isn't good in the long term. So I'll let him down, give him a little massage, and then we can get to the other fun. Do you want to go first . . . ?"

"Not immediately," she said. "I'd want to watch, and little."

He nodded. "I'll sit, just like this, and pull him back onto me. His legs will be stretched so wide, you'll be able to see everything. I won't do any of the work; it'll all be gravity, or his choice, whether to go fast or slow, how to move - or, if he's close, how to _not_ move - "

Ken groaned.

He ignored it. "And whenever you're ready, you can join in. It will be harder, I imagine, with both of us at once. No matter which way he moves, he'll be coupling with one of us, and it'll be his job to make it good, for as long as we keep going - I'll probably come first, but he'll be getting direct friction from you - and I can use my fingers on his prostate - "

Lady Mael came. He saw it in the way she stiffened and tightened her fingers in Ken's hair to hold him in place, doing exactly what he was doing. He heard it in her short, sharp gasp. And he felt it, through Fire, which he did sometimes when something she experienced was very strong.

She stayed like that for a long, long moment, and then said, "Bring him up."

He wrapped one arm around Ken to steady him, and with the other unclipped the chain from his wrist cuffs. Then he pulled the slave upright and checked that he was okay.

He was more than okay. He was swimming in endorphins, from the blissed out expression on his wet, shiny face. Ken swayed a little just sitting there, as he unclipped the bicep and wrist cuffs and rubbed blood flow back into his shoulders. It wasn't until he said, "Ready for round two?" that Ken responded again.

"I," said Ken. "I need. I'm sorry, but. I. This is too - I'm not going to be able to not come."

"You need?" he prompted, when Ken stopped talking.

"A cock ring?" asked Ken. "Something. _Please_."

"Okay," he said. He'd brought one, not sure if it was wishful thinking or good planning or both. It was the single-use kind; once he tightened it, it could only be removed by waiting until the erection went down and there was enough slack to pull it off, or by cutting it. He held it in front of Ken's face, and then a moment later said, "Open your eyes."

There was an audible noise when he did, eyelashes glued together by his wife's arousal. It took a moment for Ken to focus, to parse, and then he said, "Yes." 

"Put it on. Don't tighten it too hard, I don't want to have to pull a knife on you."

Ken laughed, a dry, raspy sound. "I don't, either;" and he and put it on.

"Better?" he asked.

"I'll be able to - satisfy you," said Ken.

"So, better?" asked his wife.

"I can't come," said Ken. "And I. Want to."

"If you don't want to, I'm doing it wrong," he said.

"That _hurt_ , and I still want to," said Ken.

"I'm a sexual sadist, Ken," he said. "I _enjoy_ giving my men new and exciting kinds of pain. I enjoy teaching them to like it."

"Oh."

"And I am very, very pleased with you right now," he added. "Recognizing that you weren't going to be able to keep yourself in check, and asking for help. You can ask one question; but if we choose not to answer, you don't get another."

Ken closed his eyes again. His face was drying, the liquid turning into a papery layer that would flake later. "Why," he asked, "do you even need me? You're already so perfect together. So in step."

"Thank you," said Lady Mael.

He thought about not answering, but it wasn't like the truth wasn't already known in their circles. "I enjoy hurting men," he said. "My wife declines to be in the kind of pain I enjoy, and she is the wrong gender anyway. And we are attempting to have a child."

"Um. The rumors about Masters of Fire . . . ?"

" _One_ question, I said. Are you ready for round two?"

"I - yes. I. I've never ridden anyone before."

"You'll enjoy it," he said. "This will probably be easiest if we start with you on hands and knees, and then sit back."

Ken nodded and leaned forward and proved that he was still pretty far down when he almost missed catching himself on his arms. He did, just in time, and managed to get a stable equilibrium, and then turned to look over his shoulder. It was, in all likelihood, just Ken being curious; he'd certainly seen much better come-hithers. But it was still a message that he was ready, so he put one hand on Ken's waist and used the other to line himself up.

The slide in wasn't really remarkable but it was _good_ in the uncomplicated physical way. He completely ignored the part of him that was clamoring to just fuck, and instead wrapped both arms around Ken and pulled them upright again. They paused there, Ken warm and panting softly, legs spread wide around his.

"Oh," said Lady Mael, a noise that spoke multitudes for such a small sound.

"Yeah," he said, into Ken's ear. "Go on, give her a show."

Ken . . . did. Well, it took him a little while to find his rhythm; and, because he was doing all the work with his thighs and then letting gravity carry him back down, it wasn't fast. It was deep, and sweet, delicious even if it wasn't going to get him off. Ken found the right angle almost immediately and kept rolling his hips to get a slow pass to his prostate on every thrust, letting out little shocked-pleased whines when he did. He was discovering that he could enjoy being watched, under the right circumstances.

They did that for ten, fifteen minutes. He could have done it for hours, but that was how long it took before his lady wife decided she was ready for more. She slid forward, put a hand on one of Ken's thighs to still him, and leant forward for a kiss. Ken sighed into it, giving as got as he got, and whined when she pulled back. And then she kissed him. He blanked.

It wasn't that they didn't kiss. They did, little pecks on cheeks or lips to say hello or offer silent support. But they didn't - do this. Hadn't since their last disastrous attempt at copulation, five years ago.

On the other hand, this wasn't anything like a disaster, and also, they wouldn't be attempting copulation again until they'd worked where his kinks overlapped with hers. He opened his mouth, and started kissing back. It went on for a while, as they mapped and relearned each other. When she pulled back, she said, "Mm. I'm keeping you," in exactly the same tone she'd used seven years ago, while the whole marriage was still in early negotiations and he'd decided to sit down and tell her about all the reasons he'd be an awful husband.

Now, he chuckled. "Logistics?"

"Probably simplest if I lie down on my back, and we - "

"Yes," he agreed. "But is that what you want?"

"It's a start," she said.

He knew the feeling.

She got on her back while he pulled out, and Ken looked at her and then at him and said, "I - may I?"

"Just a little," said Lady Mael, but reached down to hold herself open, guide Ken in. Once he was, she allowed half a dozen thrusts before she said, "All right, stop."

Ken froze.

He said, "No, you didn't do anything wrong. Just," as he crowded in behind and slid back in, "need to get situated. Okay."

"When you're ready, then, Ken," said Lady Mael.

Ken surged forward into her, then pulled back onto him. Within the first half-dozen strokes, he was sweating. Trembling by the first dozen. And he was right; he wasn't going to last long, not after that long burn, not with his wife's dark eyes drilling into him like that.

"Faster," commanded Lady Mael.

Ken whimpered, but obeyed, hips stuttering into a new rhythm.

"Open your eyes."

He knew Ken complied, because the slave moaned and jerked, ass clenching spasmodically around him. It was almost, almost enough, except that Ken also stopped moving.

"Ken?" asked Lady Mael, concerned.

"He's fine," he said. "Just the cock ring doing its job." He slapped one cheek of Ken's ass. "She didn't say you could stop."

Ken moaned again, brokenly, but started moving again. He also began making cut-off little noises, almost like he was in serious pain and not just the ache of a denied orgasm. He frowned. There was nothing, he hadn't - 

"Don't keep quiet," said Lady Mael. "I want to hear you."

"As do I," he said.

"Oh," said Ken, more an exhale of breath than a word, and, "Ah," and he pulled back, taking it, " _Nnn_ ," as he slid forward, giving it up to his lady wife. Little nonsense noises with every motion, but a perfect expression of how totally they had him. The only thing that could have made it better was if some of them _were_ in pain, an audible reminder that Ken was feeling whatever it was he'd done.

He hadn't done anything like that.

Yet.

Ken tried to come again, and again, the ring stopped him. It didn't, however, stop the involuntary convulsions. This time Ken _didn't_ stop moving, either, just voiced a long, liquid moan that spoke volumes of how much he didn't want the ring just then. That was enough. He gripped Ken's hips, pulled him back and held him there while he came. Then he let out a long, slow breath.

"Wow," said Lady Mael.

He raised his eyebrows.

"No, talk later. I want mine, now."

"One moment," he said, carefully pulling out, and then using a finger to push a glob of come back into him. "There. Hold that in."

Ken bit his lip, and then said at all once, "I have a question."

"Ask."

"Are you going to finger me?"

"Mm. No. Difficult to do on a moving body. Did you want me to?"

"I - don't know," said Ken. "I just wanted to be prepared, I think."

He smiled, a little darkly. "See to my wife."

Ken tried to come twice more in the time it took Lady Mael to reach her completion. He was paying attention, but also carefully wiping and coiling the long length of chain and the shorter carabiner clips. Those they could sterilize and reuse, and he had plenty of rope at home. The cuffs . . . he considered. He had those, too, but for now he liked to see the four of them on Ken. The lube was open, so he'd have to buy it, but he'd use it so it was fine. The plug was pretty boring, and not something he particularly wanted, but it probably came free with Ken. He looked over at the wall, and then over at his wife.

He kept watching until she came. Female bodies didn't interest him and never would, but watching her eyes roll back in her head as she shook was . . . affecting. Deeply. It made him grateful that no matter who she was fucking, she was always going to come back to bed with him.

Ken kept going until she pushed him away, and then he sat back with a grateful huff. His cock was an angry red, and his nipples were a bit pink with the unfamiliar weights, but otherwise he looked fine.

"Ken," he said.

Ken looked up.

He gestured at the wall. "Go pick a plug for yourself. One that is, ah, a _challenging_ size for you, but not painful. You'll be wearing it for a while, so don't let your eyes run ahead of what you can actually handle."

"Oh, then - " began Ken, and then caught himself, and then caught himself again. He took a breath. "You're keeping me?"

That had not been in question, since he'd asked for a cock ring rather than come when he wasn't supposed to at least. But, thinking back, neither of them had said anything, and of course Ken would not be privy to the parts of their conversations without words, which were most of them.

"Mm," said Lady Mael. "I'd have bought you for your tongue alone; but I'm glad we can make the purchase we came here to make. Say it."

"Um?" asked Ken.

"The thing that you just thought," he clarified. "She wants you to say it out loud."

"Oh, I," said Ken. "Two people have owned me. And the corporation, I suppose, but. I don't think I've ever been so _possessed_ , and I. You haven't even bought me."

"Yet," said Lady Mael, and shooed him. "Go on. Pick a plug."

Ken nodded, and padded across the floor. He was a little unsteady, but in exactly the way someone coming down off an endorphin rush should be. He turned to look at his wife.

She smiled, and said, "And Ken? One with a built-it vibrator would be ideal."

Ken moaned. It became impossible not to kiss her. Not the slow, sensual, open-mouthed kiss from earlier, but the lip-to-lip peck which served them as a less wordy way of saying well done. He let it linger just a moment longer than usual.

She smiled up at him and said, "I'm going to take the first shower, since you're going to be busy with our boy," and got up off the bed. A moment later, the water started up.

The plug Ken chose was really not that big, perhaps four centimeters at the widest: not bigger than a human cock, but for someone who admitted he didn't take cock often . . . And of course, it was unusual to be penetrated by a real cock for hours on end. It was basically four ovoids, sort of pressed together so they made one longer, bulbous whole, narrowing and then flaring into a flange near the base. It was about fourteen centimeters long, curved a little in mimic of the real thing. Perfect for a beginner. He raised an eyebrow.

Ken said, "Each of the sections vibrates independently."

"Good choice," he said, and scooted over to the edge of the bed. "Over my knees."

He lubed up the plug generously. Really, Ken probably didn't need it, but it paid to be careful. He paused, and then began fucking it in. He could have just pushed it, but he enjoyed the frustrated noises Ken made, the sight of his sphincter widening and narrowing around whatever section was right at his entrance. Ken was panting again when he let the flange seat fully, and then he tugged it a couple times to make sure it was secure. It was, and the way Ken twitched at the pressure was good too. "All right," he said. "Sit up. See how that feels. If there's any pain, tell me."

Ken pushed himself up, sat up, and then his mouth opened on another small gasp. He didn't even have to be prompted. "It's - pressing right up against my spot."

" _Very_ good choice," he said. "One other matter to attend, and then you can wash."

"Okay," said Ken, eagerly.

"You like washing?"

"I like being _clean_. I'm all sweaty and gross."

Interested, he asked, "And being plugged up with my come still inside you?"

"That's different. That's what _you_ want."

"If I didn't?"

There was hardly any pause. "Then I'd go do an enema. If we had time, I mean."

"Huh," he said, filing that away for later. Cleanliness was a good thing. "But first, we need to talk about freezing up in the middle there. You self-corrected, so I'm not angry. I just need to punish you for it."

Ken swallowed, but said, "Yes."

"So: what's a good punishment?"

There was a pause while Ken thought. "I don't know," he said. "I mean. You already did my nipples, and I'm - I won't come anyway. I think - hurt me somehow? The way you like to. But I don't know anything about. Pain."

"I'd be surprised if you did," he said. "Wife?"

"Yes?" asked Lady Mael, from in the shower.

"Are you particularly enamored of our Ken's pubic hair?"

"Ugh, no," she said, which he'd honestly expected. She didn't love his beard either, and most of her men were smooth all over. "Why? Are we having him shave?"

"No; I'm going to wax it."

"That seems a little . . . "

"It's a punishment," he explained. "For stopping that time."

"Oh. Okay."

"Not yet," he said to Ken. "When we get home. Although I'm sure they have the supplies here, I don't need to spend money buying it at inflated prices, and I want to have time to enjoy it."

Ken swallowed, apple bobbing in his throat. "Yes."

"Good boy," he said, as the shower shut off. "Your turn. Go wash."

He did his wife's hair while she dried off and put her undergarments back on, and then they both got her back into her outfit. She looked - calm, serene, not a hair out of place. As though they hadn't just spent an hour and a half _coupling_. She felt him watching, and said, "What?"

"I love you," he said, which was not the kind of thing he said to her. Ever.

She smiled and said, "I knew _that_. Shower's free. Go on."

He took a quick shower, and when he came out Ken was wearing the absolutely ridiculous getup the market kept for slaves. He and Lady Mael wrestled his armor back on and she handed him his knives, one at a time until they were all placed. Ken stared. He said, "Say it."

"That's. A lot of knives. Aren't you a Master of Fire?"

"I like knives," he said.

"Clearly," said Ken, and then looked aghast at himself. When no rebuke was forthcoming, he added, "I. Um. I took the cuffs off, because water would ruin the leather. Should I put them back on?"

"No. I have plenty at home."

"And the weights?" asked Lady Mael. "I like them."

She didn't, particularly. She liked the way they made Ken squirm, which was an important distinction. He said, "We have a nice set at home. We could put some nipple clamps on, though." He didn't own much in the way of nipples, and he could see where they were definitely going to have to purchase some specialized accessories. "Depends on how much you want to test that cock ring. I think, if we push that way, we can get him to come anyway."

"Hmm," said Lady Mael, and, "All right. Ken, you pick: clamps, and we play with you on the ride home until you come, or no clamps and we still play with you but there are no guarantees."

"No clamps," said Ken, immediately.

"Really?"

"No clamps," repeated Ken.

"No clamps, then, and no weights. Just the plug." She held up the little remote.

They stopped by the playroom desk. He checked off a list of toys they'd used, so those could be sterilized and returned to use. His wife, meanwhile, purchased the plug.

Actually buying Ken took much longer, and was mostly reading long legalese documents and then signing. He and his wife switched off stacks, and got the paperwork done in a reasonable amount of time. Ken sat stoically while they added his new owners' data to his chips. The market tried to sell them on having him tattooed, which he declined, and then declined again more firmly.

"That went well, I thought," said Lady Mael as they walked toward their shuttle.

"Mm," he said. It had, for any number of definitions of the word 'well,' and he no longer had doubts about this working, but . . . "I'd still feel more comfortable if you'd let me teach you a little bit about Fire."

"No," she said immediately, and that was that.

They turned the corner to the landing yard where their ship was docked. Between then, Ken stopped. He turned to look, and found the slave staring with open-mouthed shock. "Ken?"

"That," said Ken, "is an SP-seven-nine-two-LE Rallandir gateship. Only four hundred of them were ever made."

Right. Mechanical specialty, which was apparently due to actual passion. It shouldn't have been a surprise. The Mittan was very good at matching slaves to duties. "LX, actually," he said, and pressed the fob to get it to extend the boarding ramp.

"Seventy- _five_ ," said Ken, but started moving again.

Lady Mael said, "Say it."

"Who _are_ you?" asked Ken.

"Hmm," said Lady Mael, walking up the ramp. "You owe us a name."

Ken didn't reply. He blinked at her, but she shook her head. In his head, then. Ken continued to not talk while they strapped into the acceleration couches, and then during the acceleration. On most ships, this would have been because it was too loud to do so over the whine of the engines. And then there was the moment of disconnect as they hit the 'gate and got passed along the chain.

They began decelerating for the investigation. Ken said, a bit abruptly, "You hear stories. About Fire, and the things a true Master can do with it."

And that was, actually, a decent point. If one were ignorant. "What are you worried I'd do? Hurt you?" They both knew he would, anyway.

"Make me not be me," said Ken.

He blinked in surprise. That was possibly the most sensible response he'd ever had to that question. "Two things. One: Names aren't mere sounds. A Name can be a complicated equation, or something as simple as the memory of the smell of smoke after the rain, but even the ones which include sounds don't comprise them."

"Oh," said Ken.

He nodded, even though Ken couldn't see it from the other acceleration couch. "I can practically guarantee that you can't tell me your Name, simply because you don't know it." Almost no one did. He did, and he knew that Lady Mael knew hers - however she'd managed that - but they'd agreed not to share. It was safer for both of them. "Two, and rather more importantly: Even if I could, I wouldn't. I rather like the person you are now. What I've seen of you, that is."

"Me too," said Lady Mael.

"I - really?" It was an honest question, although he couldn't for the life of him understand why until Ken said, "I. Previous owners didn't . . . "

"Like my lord husband said: we're interested."

Then they had to stop talking because they'd landed and it was time for the market inspectors to check their ship manifesto against who and what was actually onboard. It was a boring fifteen minutes while the guards went down a checklist. Ken was demure, keeping his eyes down and not saying anything. The guards were fast and polite, and they were in and out of the checkpoint in pretty much the fastest possible time. Then they strapped back in for the trip home.

"Akun," said Ken. Two syllables: Ah-koon. It was, at the least, an unlikely coincidence: Ken - Akun - was not ginger.

"Thank you," said Lady Mael, as they hit the gate.

"Also an interesting name," he said. "I am Lord Mael, Baron of the Mark fa Seiseaux. You may call me lord, or sir."

"Lady Mael," said Lady Mael. "Baron-consort fa Seiseaux. I'd say you should call me sir, but that will quickly become confusing. Lady, or Agk." The word meant red, but was particularly evocative of the deep garnet of fresh blood. Of course, she would pick something like that. "And, as we have a few more transits to go," she added, as the ship began decelerating for the next hop, "now is a good time for fulfilling some promises."

Akun made a noise, sort of a half strangled yelp; she must have turned on the toy. "Let me know if you get close to coming."

"I," said Akun. "Haven't ever. Through a ring. I don't _know_ \- "

She laughed, not the high, cold laugh she used when one of her plots came together and she got to do something nasty to one of their enemies, but her deep throaty real one. "I know; we're experimenting. Relax. We're not punishing you for experimental results. All data is good data."

Only his wife, he reflected, could make a statement like that into a sexual enticement. Akun apparently agreed, by the way he moaned.

She said, "And now, negotiations," voice utterly neutral.

"It's not about the pain," he said quickly. "It's about the intensity."

There was a pause before Lady Mael said, "Hence the hate?"

"Well, that, and you weren't wrong when you said I needed to decide how I felt about - "

"So we were both right," said Lady Mael.

"And both wrong," he agreed.

"Hmm," said Lady Mael. "All right. Toys."

"Are for having fun," he said. She wasn't wrong about the 'just window dressing,' but just because it was possible for him to do it by hand didn't mean he liked to.

"I get veto on anything you want to use," she said.

"Only if I get likewise."

"Done."

"And I get to call a halt, at any time. That's not, ah. You just decided to learn; you won't know when to stop. I'm going to call you if you push too hard."

"If _I_ push too hard?"

"Some men . . . sometimes, they'll keep asking, begging, even when they physically can't take anything else." He suspected Akun would be one of them, once he learned when it was acceptable to beg. "You'll need to learn to ignore that."

"And do I get to call a halt?"

"No; often they'll beg you stop when they can take more, and I know you have a soft heart."

She chuckled. "We don't have to push him to limit of his endurance every single time."

"Says the woman who is thinking of creative ways to make him come despite a very strict ring."

" - point," she said. "Am I wrong in thinking you'll have him again as soon as we get home?"

"Not as soon as we get home," he temporized, thinking about all the accoutrements in his playroom. The bench, probably. At the market, they'd made Akun do all the work, and he'd behaved admirably even so. It was his turn to be immobilized, made to just accept. Salt, the things he wanted to do.

"Say it," she said.

"Are you sure? It's . . . "

"Mmh. Say it."

"I have an examination bench. It's based on the sort of thing you have at women's health exam, presumably, except for being a bit more sturdy, and the straps. Once he's in it, he won't be able to move. I'll have access to, well, anything I like."

Akun whined, high and thin.

"First thing would be to remove the ring. If he hasn't gone soft - " a soft gasp from Akun, " - and given how much fun you're having with that plug I doubt he will, I'll have to make him soft. The usual ways to do that quickly are chemical help or numb the area or pain."

"Your favorite."

"Mm. I already promised a waxing. I'll do it slowly, so he can feel it. Maybe use some icyhot oil - that's menthol-based. It goes on nice and cool, and then warms up. It's a decent massage oil, on other parts of the body. Tingly. On a freshly waxed scrotum . . . and if that's not enough to get him to go down, a few taps with a whip."

"Go on."

"And then I take the ring off. Get him hard again. Probably not the oil, that tends to last awhile. Nipples will work, but I think we don't want to overuse those - "

They hit the next gate, and began an acceleration.

"Is there a reason a massage with normal oil won't work?" she asked, sounding slightly strained.

"Well, no, but that's not as intense as I usually like to go," he said. "Are you masturbating?"

"Yes. I think it would be plenty intense, if you just waxed them smooth, and - you'd turn the plug off, right? For the waxing?"

"I wasn't planning on it."

"Really? I would think it'd make it that much more intense. Without another sensation to focus on. And then you could turn it back on."

He frowned; she was right, and usually he'd have seen that, but. He was growing hard again too. His focus wasn't at its best.

"Yes. Keep doing that until his balls try to pull up, but keep hold of them so he can't. Then take the toy out, and take my hands off, and _fuck_ him. He'll be free to come as soon as I'm inside, but I won't stop until I'm done - "

There was a moan from Akun. Then, sounding wrecked, the slave said, "I just. Um. The ring worked."

"Will it continue to do so?"

"I don't know. I never, without friction. But the harness strap is. I. May I?"

"Oh," said Lady Mael, and came. He couldn't see it, but he felt it, a little. It made his dick twitch.

"If he hasn't come by the time I finish," he said, "the bench has - well, I can give him something to rut against, if he's willing to do a bit of work, and I'll put a vibrator in. Between the two, he won't be long."

"If I have?" asked Akun, softly. Desperately.

"I'll still put something in," he said. "Not a vibrator. Take you off the bench. Get some food into you, you'll be hungry by then. And then . . . well, it's rather up to my lady wife, at that point."

"Please," said Akun.

"Please what?" said Lady Mael.

"Please, may I - rub against the strap," he broke off with a moan. "Ah, ah - "

"Say it," said Lady Mael.

"This one is - pulsing, right at my spot, I need, please, let me come - "

"If you can come, then you can come. Clench down," ordered Lady Mael, and almost before she finished speaking there was another moan, broken, needy. "Go ahead and rut against your restraints."

There were fabricy noises as Akun shifted, at least as much as the straps would let him. Panting moans, and then a whimper.

"Say it." They were almost simultaneous.

"The ring. Worked. Ah, no, please - "

"I said you can come if you can come," said Lady Mael. "Clearly, that wasn't enough. Moving on."

Akun let out a frustrated whine, but didn't keep begging. Instead he said, "I can keep moving?"

"Sure," said Lady Mael.

If that hadn't done it, probably he wouldn't be able to come with the ring on. And she had to know it, too.

He grinned. They were going to have so much fun together. "We were discussing what to do with him after . . . ?"

"Oh. Akun."

"Nnh?"

"After my lord husband is done feeding you, later, will you be able to get hard again?"

A huff, and they passed through a gate, and then Akun said, "What?"

"Later. When it's my turn again. Will you be able to get hard again?"

"I. Maybe? I don't know, I - " Another whimper-moan. " - I don't think so. Not after . . . this."

"Hmm. Husband?"

"Yes?"

"You said something earlier, about chemical help to make him soft?"

"Yes." Easily administrable as pills or as an injection, although he preferred the injection.

"How long does it last?"

"Depends on the dosage," he said. "How long do you want it to last?"

"Ten hours?"

Another moaned, "Please," from Akun.

"Easily done."

"And what was the plan for how he will be sleeping?"

"We hadn't made one." He wanted to keep Akun close, with a possessiveness that surprised him. He'd never have dared ask with one of his other men, but she'd asked, rarely, when she was making a point to one of her men. "We could keep him in bed with us? Tied down, of course."

"Why tied down?" she said. Akun wasn't able to physically overpower either one of them, and any aesthetically pleasing position would also be something he couldn't, yet, sustain for hours. "We'll give him the chemicals, and then you can finger me." Pretty much the only way he could satisfy any woman. She didn't ask often, but he took a certain pride from giving that to her when she did. "I'll fall asleep quickly after that. You can get a blow job if you need it, or if you wake up in the middle of the night wanting." He almost certainly wouldn't. Two good orgasms and satisfying his need for control on such an obedient body wouldn't leaving him wanting. "We'll see how we feel about another round in the morning."

In the morning, he'd want to see if it was possible to get Akun to come without any friction. Given the indications, chances were good.

"A very good plan," he said, as they went through the next gate.. "Now: back to negotiations. We get veto on toys, which means we have to talk about all the plans ahead of time - "

"Oh, I thought we'd just always play with him together."

"Really?" he asked, surprised. He wasn't worried about the implied time spent together; they liked each other, worked well together. It would be fine, except. "Even the - "

"Mmh. Well, I get veto on that, too. Intensity, not pain, correct? And you have other men, for that."

It was true. He did. He just wanted _this_ one. "No. I want . . . "

There was a moment of quiet, during which he worried that she was going to be stubborn, and Akun whined again, and then she said, "Yeah, all right. I have to - everything once, right? To know if I enjoy it?"

"You won't. Not the way I do." Not as a viscerally grasping need. "But I think you'll enjoy it in another way."

"Fine, so, everything once, we discuss all the plans ahead of time if you're going to be playing with him without me. We can be a bit more spontaneous if we're both there."

"Agreed."

"Still no blood, though. Not unless it's related to Fire."

"I really don't do blood outside of Fire that much." He wasn't often in that mood.

"I don't care. No."

He sighed. "Very well. Ah, other physical modifications?"

"His hair needs to be longer," she said.

He absolutely agreed. "Yes."

"And we can get him permanently smoothed."

"I prefer being able to wax him."

"You would," she said, but let it go. "Jewelry?"

"Oh," he said. He hadn't even thought of that. "Tongue stud?"

"Absolutely," she replied.

"And - Akun."

"Yes?"

"Aside from the piercing, you've never had experience with things inside your cock, correct?"

Another whimper before the reply came, "No. What - what things?"

"Surgical steel, to start. And then a piece of jewelry called a cockwand. Hollow tube. You'll be able to perform normal bodily functions through it, but it stays in. We can work the size up gradually. Eventually, I'll be able to stimulate your prostate from both sides."

A helpless gasp, and an equally helpless moan.

"And the profile from outside is actually smaller, so probably better for you, wife," he added.

"Mm. I want to see it," she said.

"My current project has one. They're, they have to be made for the individual. A bad fit can lead to infection, and no one wants that. But you can see. Ah - pearls?"

"I think not. It's nice for me, but it would ruin the aesthetic too much. And, well. We don't want something that takes that long to heal right now, do we?"

A sudden spike of warmth in his groin. "No, we do not."

"So," she said. "Anything else?"

"I - can I say something?" asked Akun.

"Not if it isn't constructive," he said.

Akun gasped, and then said, "No, I - I wouldn't. I. Have been cleaning and prepping in the morning, so that's fine, but I. Still need consort pills."

Something in him immediately rebelled, and once he tracked it down to dissatisfaction with the idea of Akun washing out his spend, he frowned. This was ridiculous. It wasn't even really safe to have it inside him now, and he wanted to continue this state of affairs? Best let that wait a few days, until he could do some Fire work. "We have those. And you like being clean. Do you . . . enemas _can_ be fun. Are they, for you?"

"I. No," said Akun. "It's like brushing my teeth."

"Something to work on, then."

"Oh," said Akun, then, " _Ohn_ ," and Lady Mael didn't even have to say anything before he said, "That's deep and I can feel it pulsing and it's. Not enough, but. _Good._ Very, very good."

"So you like the ones that pulse," said Lady Mael, as though ticking it off a list.

"I. I think so. But I. Haven't really done this. Before. There might be. Other things."

"There certainly are," he said. "But you like pulsing." He'd love the pneumatic toys, then. "Could you come on this setting?"

"I - not if you just put it in and turned it on. But right now?" A breathy laugh. "I could come from your _voice_."

Well, yes. The biggest sex organ in the human body was the brain. "I'll hold you to it."

" _Salt_ ," moaned Akun, and then his breath hitched again. He whined out a rising note, which cut off abruptly. "The ring still works. That one's. So far inside, and. This is a small toy. I can't imagine what the bigger ones feel like."

"You won't have to," said Lady Mael, as they got through a gate and decelerated. "But we'll work up to it. Maybe starting today. I count at least one other toy. Maybe two."

It was absolutely a question. "Both basic anal plugs. One with a vibrator; not as fancy as this one, but with the way he's worked up, it won't matter. For the second. The one I'm thinking of isn't that big, really, but it's solid steel: it has some weight." And he generally kept it in the fridge. Akun would feel every minute until it warmed up.

"Mm. What about the first bulb? I don't know which setting is best there."

"I. None of them? It's too strong, it just made me feel like I needed a sanitary. Sorry."

"It's a work in progress," she said. "How about now?"

"Oh, that's - nice. Like a massage from the inside. You could leave it like this for a while and I think. I'd be able to handle something bigger."

"And now?"

"It's gentle. A reminder that it's there, but not. It's. Relaxing."

"I'll leave it like this, then," she said. "We still have a little while before we get home, and we don't want you humping the straps when we get there."

"How's it feel?" he asked, just checking.

"Achey," said Akun. "Mostly in my balls and around the ring. And sticky."

"Well, the sticky at least will need washing before waxing. If it suddenly becomes acute pain tell me."

"Yes. I." A deep breath, and then a slow sigh. "Really want a kiss."

"One more jump," said Lady Mael. "And then we can unstrap."

"Okay."

"In the meantime," he said. "I have a question. Why were you being sold? All the paperwork says your last owers thought you were exemplary, but they were still selling . . . "

"To raise the funds for an Attenen nurse," said Akun in a resigned tone that meant he'd already explained this, a lot. "They had a baby. And they're not rich enough to afford a Rallandir, so."

"Well, I can't object to the motive," said Lady Mael. "The lack of taste, however."

He smiled. "Yes, well. Our fortune. And the time before that?"

"Um. Bad investments were made, and I was sold to settle a debt."

"Uh-huh," said Lady Mael. "Say it."

"Orbital mining." He snorted. Akun said, "Yes. But mistress wasn't interested in my opinion. I was there to look pretty and be satisfying."

"You are that," said Lady Mael, and then there was a jolt as they went through the last gate and the ship began skimming along the off-ramp and toward home. Almost before the deceleration began the three of them were ripping off their harnesses, getting out of the couches and close enough so they could _touch_ each other.

He got to Akun first, pulled him in for a kiss it was obvious he was desperate for, and then remained there, shuddering in his arms. He had to direct them both in a controlled collapse to the cabin floor, and then Lady Mael got to them and bracketed Akun from the other side. She reached around to begin stroking Akun. Akun made a noise of distress and pulled back out of the kiss before Lady Mael said, "Stay where you are. Clench down."

Akun obeyed, and then made another noise, this one pained, as his balls drew up and the ring worked. He looked up, begging with his eyes, which were bright with unshed tears. There were other tear tracks on his face, proof if any were needed that the ride had taken a toll. "Kiss him," said Lady Mael, and he wasn't sure which of them she was ordering and it didn't matter anyway, all he wanted just then was to take this gorgeous young man and have him and _keep_ him. He leaned forward again, and Akun stretched up into it. They kissed deeply while he tilted Akun's chin for a better angle. Akun's hips stuttered in his wife's grasp, once, twice - and then the slave pulled back and shouted incoherently, muscles drawing in and locking up and the tension having nowhere to go outside of making Akun writhe. He did so beautifully for perhaps half a minute, and then slumped forward. A moment later, his cock began trickling come.

Lady Mael nodded, wiped her hand on Akun's already worse-for-wear clothes, and sat back. There was a click as she turned off the toy. " _Definitely_ keeping you," she said.

" _Fire_ ," whispered Akun, hoarsely, mostly against his beard.

He kissed Akun on the temple, and held on.

By the time the ship coasted to a stop and dropped neatly into its berth, Akun had regained coarse motor control. That was to say, he was probably capable of walking on his own. Nevertheless, he picked the younger man up in a bridal carry he'd never have dared attempt on his actual bride. "I can walk," protested Akun; he ignored it.

Lady Mael left the ship first, and intercepted Hasko, their majordomo. "Not now, Has," she said. "And get everyone else clear, too. We're both DND unless there is an actual emergency."

There wouldn't be. There had been, years ago, but now they had a household which worked like clockwork and a demesne that didn't need constant micromanaging.

"Where will my lord and my lady be?" asked Hasko, as he walked past.

"His playroom," said Lady Mael, falling into step next to him.

" _His_ \- " began Hasko, but then thought better of it. "Have fun," he offered instead.

"I always do," he said.

His playroom was more like four rooms, but they really did only need the medical one. He let Akun down on the bench. Akun's erection had started to go down, but was being hampered by the ring restricting blood flow. It would take some time, but getting the paraphernalia set up would also take time. He went into the next room briefly, to grab the toys for later. After a moment, he made an ice bath for the steel to keep it cold. When he returned he found that Akun had relaxed bonelessly onto the bench, letting the padded surface support him. But he was tracking, watching curiously with his dark eyes as he set down the bowl and clicked the wax heater on.

So was Lady Mael.

"What?"

"Nothing," said Lady Mael, and licked her lips.

Oh. That kind of nothing. He turned to Akun. "Let's get _that_ ," he nodded to the bright orange stretchcloth, "off."

Akun began to sit back up, so he gently pushed him back down.

And pulled out a knife.

Akun's eyes widened, and he swallowed, but didn't say anything. Really, he was remarkably cooperative about giving him access, even when he was pulling a knife along his inner thighs just lightly enough to cut the cloth and not the skin. When he pulled the scrap off, he gave the skin there a little nipping kiss; a muscle jumped under the skin, and Akun said, " - sorry."

"Why?" asked Lady Mael. "Involuntary muscle spasms are involuntary."

"I just. Don't want to disappoint."

"You're not," he said.

Akun got a little bolder, after that. There was no way he _needed_ to arch that much, for example, to give access to the rags under his back, but he certainly appreciated the show. And the obvious flexibility.

By the time he was naked, Akun was also almost completely soft. He smirked a little and said, "Am I scaring you?"

Akun swallowed and said, "Yes. If your hand slipped . . . "

"Mm," he said, and reached to pull off the ring. He wasn't _quite_ soft enough for that to not be an uncomfortable scrape against the sensitive skin, but Akun just gasped and tensed all the muscles in his abdomen and didn't move at all. Then, once the thing was off, he carefully breathed out and very deliberately relaxed.

"Good job," said Lady Mael, and rewarded it with a soft kiss, just a peck on his mouth.

He said, "Legs up." The bench had, instead of the more standard stirrups, a couple of curved, padded pieces which comfortably held the calves of the person in the chair - or uncomfortably, depending on where he positioned them. When he'd purchased the bench, the leg mounts hadn't had leather straps to hold his playmate's legs in place. Now, they did. Akun put his legs in and waited patiently while he strapped them in, and then moved those arms to widen the spread of those legs and give him room.

Then he tied Akun's wrists down, kissing each one first. He chose to use the straps near the edge of the table, so his arms were mostly parallel to his body. Like that, Akun couldn't move his legs or his wrists, but could easily sit up. The other wrist straps, above his head, would have kept him supine but also possibly given him different pain to focus on. Especially given the way he'd already strained Akun's shoulders earlier. He could have used the neck strap, but wasn't in the mood for dealing with the safety concerns of breathplay just then.

That done, he went over to the supply drawer and took out a washcloth. After first wetting and then wringing it out, he went back over. He'd chosen a temperature that would have felt nice on, say, the face or shoulders, and was unpleasantly warm on the cock and balls. So of course that was where he applied to washcloth, and held it for a moment before roughly scrubbing at the combined fluids caked on his groin and lower abdomen. It took a few trips to the sink before he was satisfied and got out another washcloth to pat him dry.

Then he got out a trimmer. Waxing worked best when the hair wasn't too long. By the time he was done with that, the wax was hot.

The instructions on the kit very carefully pointed out what temperature the wax had to be to not cause burns. He followed the instructions, but usually applied it _just_ cooler than that. It took a little more time, but the way Akun gasped and twitched when he did made it worth it. He pressed the little cloth square on top, which made Akun bite his lower lip, and then let that go while he applied wax to another patch of skin. By the time that was cool enough that he could take pressure off, the first had cooled enough that he could peel it off.

Akun _shrieked_. Akun tried to close his legs and couldn't, tensed his stomach and then relaxed it again. As soon as he had, he pulled off the other strip of cloth. Akun's whole body twitched and he screamed again a little and then lay there panting.

Lady Mael said, "Oh."

He nodded. "Do you want to . . . ?"

" _Yes_ ," she said.

"Practice on his inner thighs, first. I'm doing this hotter than usual, so if you do it too thickly you could actually burn him."

But it wasn't a difficult technique - women did this to themselves, at home, all the time - and it took her hardly any time at all to master it. They got into a rhythm, one applying wax and cloth while the other ripped them off again. Akun jerked against the restraints, and shouted, and took great heaving breaths. It got more painful, he knew, as they waxed his dick and perineum and then the sensitive skin of his scrotum; and Akun had no choice but to lie there and take it. By the end, his skin was all flushed red.

Lady Mael smoothed a thumb over the soft, wrinkly balls. "And that's _not_ as intense as you usually like?"

Akun whimpered.

"I'll show you the menthol next time. For now," he capped and turned off the wax heater, and got out the normal skin oil, warming it between his hands before applying it. Akun twitched again, less intensely than previously, and moaned.

"Tell me how you're feeling," he said.

Akun had to swallow a few times to find his voice. At some point, he'd started crying; there were fresh tear tracks into his hair. "Hurts," he finally managed.

"The oil will help," he promised, stroking more of it into Akun's cock. Soft like this, the whole thing easily fit into his hand.

"I know. I. Will definitely not freeze again."

"Good," said Lady Mael. "You realize we won't always be punishing you when it's time to wax?"

Translation: they didn't need an excuse to hurt him.

"Yes," said Akun. "But I. Wanted you to know."

"That's very sweet," said Lady Mael, and reached into a pocket.

Akun gasped and flexed, hips rising to meet his hand. He continued stroking, unperturbed, until Akun dropped back down. "How does it feel?"

"Pins and needles," said Akun. "Intense. I'm, I think I'm, going to get hard again."

"Of course you will," he said. "You're going to come on my cock, remember?"

Akun's mouth opened on an, "Oh." It was possible he had, if not forgotten, let it get pushed to the corner of his mind. Then, to his delight, Akun added, "Yes please."

He squeezed harder. Akun's hips came up again, dick twitching against his wrist and then against Lady Mael's. He raised his head to look at her. "Husband. _You_ need to undress. Although I suspect your undergarments are a lost cause."

"They are," he said, stepping back, letting her take over for a moment. "And how wet are you?"

"Oh, I'm consigning them to Fire." She said it lightly, but it still gave him pause.

Akun, however, laughed out loud. Then he gasped - probably something about the way the laughter had moved his abdomen. He said, "Yes. My wife has weird ideas about what makes a good offering."

"The pants I was wearing when my husband overcame his revulsion enough to have sex with me for the first time in years," said Lady Mael evenly. " _Soaking_. How is that not a good offering?"

Well, when put like that . . . "I seem to recall giving you an orgasm - "

"And you refer to it as 'giving me an orgasm,'" she interrupted. "Sex. With _me_. Not just giving me physical pleasure, however nice that is."

She was right, he realized. He'd married her for her mind, loved her for it, and couldn't actually engage with her as a person in bed. Today, with Akun, it had been the most natural thing in the world. He went back to stripping.

"Can I," said Akun, a little breathlessly. "Is there. A shrine I can use?"

"You want to?" he asked, surprised. Most slaves weren't religious.

"Yeah," said Akun.

"We have two," said Lady Mael. "The big formal one, which we only use for Festival and when he has to do something with Fire that won't fit in his workshop, and the other one that we actually use. And some small personal ones, I suppose."

"Then don't - throw away all of that stretchcloth. Please." And then a moment later, "Ah, ah - "

"Say it."

"I. Tingly. Hot." But not, from the renewed note of need, a bad kind of hot. "Please don't stop!"

"He needs help racking the armor," she said, and, "Lick."

Akun moaned as he licked her thumb, and then lay there, twitching, while they got him out of his armor. It didn't take long, and once it was off he shucked the harness and padding in about fifteen seconds, and then his underwear in about a moment more. He threw the cloth at the bin, like a civilized person. He was more than ready to fuck Akun stupid, but Akun wasn't quite at the phase where he'd come from that. Not much longer, though, either, the way he was leaking.

"Akun," he said, just to call attention to himself, and then deliberately slowly lowered his head and licked a stripe up Akun's cock. Clean skin, a little of the oil, and salt but no bitter. Akun let his head fall back and his hips stutter. He pulled back and got more oil and resumed stroking, feeling the soft, smooth skin.

"Please," Akun begged.

His dick twitched. "Please what?"

" _Fuck_ me!"

"You're not ready yet," he said, and ran couple of fingers up his own dick, which was dripping. "Lick."

Akun did, and then when he pulled his hand back a moment later tried to follow with his mouth. Lady Mael put a hand to his chest and pushed him back down. Then she put her other hand on his abdomen and said, "I can't feel the vibration at all. Doesn't get any higher, and your body just takes it. You love it, don't you?"

"Yes," pleaded Akun.

"Rock your hips. Show me how much you want it."

Akun did, and didn't even have time to establish a rhythm before his balls started pulling up. He grabbed them and pulled them back, not too hard, just enough to keep him from coming. Akun whined and huffed back. He reached for more oil, warmed it for a moment between his hands. Then reached down to where the toy was buzzing and pulled it out and thrust his fingers, three of them, in. Akun was hot and clingy, looser than he'd been the previous time but still in need of extra lube. He did so, thrusting in time with his pulls, and was thrilled when Akun started moving his hips in counterpoint. Definitely ready to be fucked, begging with his whole body. He spent just enough time with that so he could be sure there was enough slick before pulling out his fingers and sliding forward.

Akun _wailed_.

"You go ahead and come whenever," he said. He wasn't going to last long either, but was going to last long enough.

It took a few experimental thrusts to find their rhythm. Then Akun was moving with him, hips rocking smoothly, and making little, "Ah, ah, ah," noises for every thrust. He rolled his hips a little, got the right angle on the second try. Akun shouted as he came, muscles contracting around him in fluid waves and _didn't stop moving_. Kept fucking himself for his entire orgasm, and then after. Even when Lady Mael dragged her fingers through the spatter on his chest and presented them at his mouth. She didn't even have to tell him to lick, he just did, tongue darting out to pull those fingers in and ass clenching.

That, involuntary, incontrovertible proof that Akun was enjoying the, the coupling at least as much as the fucking was what threw him over the edge. He slammed his hips forward one last time and stayed there while, for a second time that day, he filled Akun with his semen.

He paused.

Lady Mael said, "Gorgeous."

"He is," he agreed. Fucked-out was a good look on Akun.

"Mmh," said Lady Mael, and then handed him something. It took him a minute to realize it was the new plug, cold and wet and slightly wider, but nothing Akun wouldn't be able to handle with how relaxed he was. He took a breath and slid out, and slid the plug in in one smooth motion. 

Akun tensed his abdomen in surprise, but by then the plug was in and there was nothing he could do. "Aah," he said, and then as his hips rocked involuntarily, "Nng." He could see the muscles twitching around the unexpected cold of it. It wasn't enough to do any damage, but from the way he didn't stop clenching and releasing around it, it didn't feel that way from the inside.

He stepped back. "Showers first, I think."

"Nnn," said Akun. "No."

"No?"

"No. I - got to come," and he could see Akun bear down on the toy, then shudder at the feeling, "and you came. And now - Agk? Please?"

"Please what?" asked Lady Mael.

"Ride my face," said Akun.

" _Yes_ ," agreed Lady Mael, and wasted no time getting out of her trousers and pants and climbing up so she could straddle Akun.

"Sir," said Akun, from where he was hidden mostly under her skirts. "You should, I mean, if she likes, you should - with her breasts. And kiss her throat."

He met his wife's eyes. "Do you want that?"

"It won't disgust you?"

"I don't find breasts _disgusting_ ," he said, and began unbuttoning the line along her spine. With them loose, he was able to sneak his hands inside her bodice, under her breast band. Her nipples were already hard, which . . . was not something he'd known about her. But nipple play was nipple play. Akun hated it.

Lady Mael, it turned out, _loved_ it: first panting and then trembling and then moaning, although probably some of that was Akun's doing. He wasn't hearing much other than suggestively slick noises, anyway. He bent his head to kiss her throat, nibbling a little. She gasped for that, and tilted her head to give him better access. She she began rolling her hips, rocking against Akun's face. It really wasn't all that long until she came, in her silent way. Then she sighed and shuffled backwards to give Akun room to breathe. He kissed her throat again.

Akun said, " _Now_ showers. We're . . . " He visibly clenched again, and then shuddered.

"In need of them again," agreed Lady Mael, and turned to begin unbuckling the slave. It didn't take them long to get him free, but it turned out that his legs had gone to sleep and he actually couldn't walk. Lady Mael began laughing.

After a moment, he joined in. "A fine trio we are."

"Let's work on her clothes, then," suggested Akun, so they did that. Then, once she was naked, she turned and helped massage the blood flow back into his legs, and also tie a strip of orange fabric around his wrist so he wouldn't forget it.

"Shower?" asked Lady Mael.

"Well, there's a showerhead in the next room over, but . . . "

"But?" asked Akun.

"That's the pain room."

"Oh." Akun visibly squared himself and said, "Okay."

He looked over at Lady Mael. She said, "I agree. Okay."

So they walked around the baffle and into the adjoining room. One corner of it was shower, for sluicing off after a session or for hosing down the room. The two adjoining walls were covered in shallow drawers, floor to ceiling. A whipping stand was bolted to the third wall. The fucking machine was parked in front of the mirror wall, along with the breeding stand and folded-up sling. Various eyelets were bolted the the walls and floor and ceiling.

Akun's eyes widened, though whether at the sheer number of drawers or the other accoutrements he couldn't tell. Lady Mael, who hadn't been in there recently, looked around and said, "Very . . . neat. Organized."

This was a terrible idea, and unfortunately too late to back out.

"Um," said Akun, staring at the fucking machine. "What is it?"

"Fucking machine," he said.

"Oh. Why?"

"Because sometimes," he said, "I'll just want you to be fucked, and I'll have other things to do, and anyway I am physically incapable of continuing on for hours. But it's a machine. It won't come and go soft, or get tired out. It'll just keep going, as hard as I want, as deep as I want, as fast as I want, as _long_ as I want. No matter how many times you come."

Akun made a noise, deep in his throat, something like a cross between a whimper and a growl; and, amazingly, his cock twitched. He blinked, and then turned to look at his wife to see if she'd caught it. She hadn't, because she was looking at the contents of some of the drawers. Akun said, "Salt, I - please give me the drugs now."

" _Can_ you get hard again?" he asked.

Akun shook his head. "Around this? I really don't think so. Maybe I can sort of, halfway, but . . . not enough to satisfy."

"Depends on what you mean by satisfaction," said Lady Mael, rejoining the conversation. "Not enough to satisfy _me_ , sure. But I think my lord husband would be very - satisfied - if you can manage half of an erection: enough to tease you, but not enough that you can get it up no matter how much anyone touches you. Just enough to make you throb."

Akun whimpered. He wondered how he'd managed to marry the most perfect woman in the galaxy and then not know about it for years.

She nodded. "So: just the contraceptive, then. If he can, I'll get a nice coupling. If he can't, you'll get . . . whatever it is you get out of that."

"I am going to die," said Akun, flatly. "Of too many amazing orgasms, or of aching for more. And either way, I'll die happy."

Lady Mael laughed. "Come on. Shower."

After the shower, during which Akun asked if could wash them and then shamelessly put his hands all over them in the guise of doing so, he led them around the other baffle to the next room. It was really just a big, fancy closet. But at least it had a few clean underthings, and houserobes. It was going to be obvious to anyone that they were his houserobes, but it wasn't like they vanished into his playrooms for an hour to not have sex. Then he figured the might as well go for broke and show them the last room, which was the sensation room, although they'd passed through it on the way in.

Lady Mael stepped around the baffle first, followed by Akun. Akun very clearly just sort of mentally shrugged and accepted it: medical kink room, pain kink room, room full of outfits, comfortable room with a nice bed. Lady Mael said, "I don't get it."

"Sometimes I like normal sex," he said. "And you were very clear on the topic of me bringing my men to our bed, so." Room with a bed.

"Oh." She might have said something else, but Akun's stomach grumbled then so she actually said, "Let's feed him, hmm?"

They headed back to their suite, and he flagged down the first person they saw - a household slave vacuuming the carpet - to get someone to send dinners to their room. "Finger foods," he said. "And a consort pill."

"Yes, my lord," said the girl, curtseying.

They ensconced themselves in the sitting room. Akun was going to sit on the floor until he flopped onto one of the couches and pulled the slave to rest against him. It was sort of awkward, because Akun was taller so his feet hung off the end. But he didn't seem to mind, settling back against him with a sigh of relief, although he kept tensing and then shuddering. The plug, he assumed. "Settle," he said, and Akun went still, then moaned a moment later. He smirked, and began petting Akun's hair; Akun pushed into the touch. Lady Mael curled into her chaise and watched them, palpably pleased. Well, they all were.

"Incense for your thoughts?" he asked.

"When are you going to brand him?"

"In two days." And then, when Akun tensed against him, he sighed. "It does not actually involve using a red-hot piece of metal anywhere on your body. The spell is called branding. It means to mark you with a little bit of Fire. It's a very self-contained thing - not even other Masters of Fire can see a brand they didn't place - and you probably won't even feel it. Most people can't, and even those that do - "

"It feels like he smells," said Lady Mael. "Cinnamon and a hot desert wind blowing over something metallic. I have to be in the right mood, and paying attention, but I can occasionally feel it. It doesn't hurt, though."

"Okay," said Akun. "Why?"

"I can always find people I've branded," he said. "And there are some other benefits that are only tangible to me."

"Oh."

At that point, the meal arrived on a trolley. Hasko was pushing the trolley. Lady Mael sat up immediately.

"No, nothing," said Hasko, reassuring, which meant he was setting up the little tables and bringing out the covered platters because he really just wanted a look at Akun.

He sighed. "Akun, Hasko, our majordomo. Hasko, Akun."

"Um. Hi," said Akun, whose focus was internal and not on Hasko at all.

"Should I have a room prepared in - "

"No," said Lady Mael. "We're keeping him," she added, slightly stressing the _we_. "But see it you can get Tannoille free any time tomorrow. He needs clothes."

"Very good, my lady," said Hasko, "Good evening," and backed out out of the room.

"I get clothes?" asked Akun.

"Everyone gets clothes," said Lady Mael. "Heating an entire house to be comfortable for naked people isn't economical, and I don't particularly want to see the penis of someone I'm not taking to bed. Although," she added, "you're going to get the kind of clothes that are _accessible_. I'm not going to keep buying new ones when my lord husband rips them off you."

He rolled his eyes. " _One_ time, by accident, and she never stops bringing it up - "

"Or I rip them off of you," finished Lady Mael sweetly, leaning over to pour herself a cup of the spice tea she favored.

He blinked. "Up," he said. Akun moved and then groaned as the heavy plug shifted. He opened the dish to find that dinner was sliced vegetables with various dips, crackers with paté, and different kind of meats on skewers, all perfect for feeding someone by hand. He settled back, pulling Akun along. Then he selected a slice of radish, dipped it in some of the hot-sour sauce, and held it to Akun's lips. Akun took it from his fingers, which involved briefly licking their tips, and ate. He took something for himself, and then offered more.

"Okay, so," said Akun, while he was next eating, "I have a question."

"Just the one?" asked Lady Mael, amused.

"I have _lots_ of questions, but I - need an answer for this one." He paused as a piece of orange chicken on a skewer appeared in front of him, and then delicately nipped it off the skewer. "What are the ground rules? Please."

"Actually, that's really a good question," said Lady Mael, looking across at them. "We - haven't kept a man jointly before. I have my rules, and my husband has his, but they're not the same."

"Uh," said Akun.

"We'll go through it now," he said. "But you get a reward for asking. Later. Maybe tomorrow. Your rules?"

"Generally be physically clean and presentable, and ready to serve me when I want. Or at least only a few minutes away from being ready." She winked. "Do what I say, when I say. Don't come until I say it's all right."

"That's it?" he asked, surprised, feeding Akun a cracker with a bit of beef liver. And his pill.

"That's all I've ever needed."

"Hmm. I agree with you on the cleanliness and readiness to serve, but, for me, it just takes more preparation."

"So, toys?" asked Lady Mael evenly.

"Sometimes the fun is in the preparation. Or in having him just stretched enough."

Akun drew a quick breath.

"So, toys?" repeated Lady Mael. "Not big ones; ones like the one he had at the market, to keep him just a bit open."

" . . . yes," he said. "Do what I say, but don't do anything I didn't say you can do, either."

"Questions," said Akun immediately. "Does that cover bodily functions?"

"What?" he asked.

"Some people like having their sex slave have to come ask them to eat and urinate."

Every time, he thought. Literally every time he thought he was as weird as it got, he was reminded that there were weirder sexual proclivities. "You have blanket permission to eat and drink and urinate and defecate and sleep without asking. You are _ordered_ to do all of the above as often as necessary to maintain your physical health."

"Oh thank Fire," said Akun. "And the other question: time."

"Time?"

"I, my primary purpose is to be sexually fulfilling, and there's a certain amount of time that goes into maintaining myself, but, um. Not sixteen hours worth on any given day. My last owners didn't really care what I did, and my first owner was, um - "

"An idiot?" suggested Lady Mael.

" - and had me doing _housework_ , but what should I - "

"You like mechanics," he said, offering a bit of carrot-with-glazed-onion-sauce.

Akun made a soft noise of enjoyment before answering. "Yes."

"So we'll give you that kind of problem to solve."

"Ah?"

"Just being a Baron of the Mark isn't anything like lucrative, so we consult," said Lady Mael.

It was clear that Akun still didn't understand. But he didn't need to, now. "We'll give you some probably boring mechanical questions, and then some more interesting ones."

"Okay," said Akun, and accepted a bit of chicken with peanut sauce.

"You can touch yourself as much as you like, but you don't come without permission. However, unless I've specifically told you you're not to ask during a session, you can always ask one of us."

"And the other thing applies too? If I'm afraid I'm going to break one the rules, even without meaning to, I can ask for help?"

"You're encouraged to," he said.

"What about involuntary reactions?" asked Lady Mael. "Sleep ejaculations, and passing out, and so forth."

His usual answer would have been that that was the kind of thing they were supposed to ask for help with, but he had a feeling she wouldn't like that. Instead, he said, "Case-by-case basis. Which means we're trusting you to tell us when you notice that happening, although of course when you're unconscious you might not. We will definitely punish you for not telling us even if you do know."

"Yes," said Akun. "Oh, that's good," he added in response to some spicy stuffed mushrooms.

"I will, sometime in the next week, begin putting things in a toy box just for you. I expect you to choose at least one of the things in that box - and it will be a rotating selection - to wear each day, but one of us has to take it off again."

Akun bit his lip, and said, "Does that apply to the - things to keep me open too?"

"Until you wash and prep yourself the next morning," he decided. He'd have to choose a new toy once every twenty-four hours anyway: often enough for variety, plenty of time for him to really experience anything he did wear. "And of course, if either of us gives you something to wear for the day, you put it on and keep it on."

"Or in," said Lady Mael, mischievously.

Akun whimpered. "If it's painful?"

"Sometimes that will be deliberate," he said, just for the shudder, and then the shallow gasp. "But if you're bleeding drop _everything_ and tell one of us. Permanent physical damage is unacceptable." He paused to let that sink in. "You can always _ask_ us to take anything else off." They didn't have to do it.

"And once you've asked one, you don't go ask the other hoping for a different response," said Lady Mael.

"No," he agreed. "There will be other rules for sessions, but those only last until the session is over. Which might, being fair, be hours, or even several days."

"If we're punishing you, we will always tell you," said Lady Mael. "And when we're finished, that's it, whatever it was is in the past. Of course, he likes pain, so . . . "

"I'll tell you when it's just for fun," he agreed. "Questions?"

"Please always tell me if you're adding a rule. I can, new rules are fine, but I have to know."

"Fair," said Lady Mael.

"And can I ask for other things? Like if I want a kiss, or to use the shrine?"

"You have blanket permission to use the shrine," he said. "But I get your point, and you may."

Something about Akun relaxed. It wasn't his abdomen, which was still tensing and relaxing even though the outer layer of the toy must be body temperature now. It wasn't his spine, which was already slack against him. "Okay. Immediate request, then. I. Usually lift weights and run to stay healthy. I mean. And do stretches. Is there a gym?"

"You'll get the tour tomorrow," said Lady Mael. "But yes, of course. I like the way you look."

"And, a kind of frivolous one, but. There's a particular brand of shampoo I like - "

"We'll buy it," he said, perfectly aware that Akun was testing.

"Oh. Okay." And then, the question he was actually nervous about asking, "Can I have access to the _Journal of Applied Mechanics_?"

He blinked, and looked over at Lady Mael, who was almost laughing out loud. "Someone got angry at you for asking that?" he asked. "Really?"

"Yes?" said Akun. "My first owner, and the market manager. The market manager just yelled at me, he couldn't damage the merchandise, but - "

"Spare me," she said. "Yes, you can and should ask for any of the resources needed to complete your consulting tasks. Which you don't have yet, but keeping up with the field counts, as long as you don't neglect your primary duties."

"Oh. I. Can I have a kiss?"

"One moment," he said, and popped an after-dinner chocolate into his mouth. Then he tilted his head down, and Akun twisted to meet him. He nudged the chocolate into Akun's mouth, licked his tongue, and then withdrew. "Don't talk," he said. "Just let it melt on your tongue."

"Mm," hummed Akun happily.

He took the other chocolate for himself, and reached around to pet Akun's cock. It was mostly flaccid now, just a nice handful. He squeezed. Akun squirmed, not really trying to get anywhere, simply a very slow-motion writhe as he enjoyed the two contrasting sensations. But he'd been absolutely right: he wasn't going to get hard again anytime soon. Touching him like this was uncomfortable without being painful, a tease without being torture, and basically what he really wanted to keep doing forever.

"So," said Lady Mael, watching Akun's languorous movement. "I have a question. Since when do breasts not disgust you?"

"They never did," he said. "Not interesting does not automatically mean disgusting."

"That's a point," said Lady Mael. "So, if I asked you to, mm, suckle me there - "

Akun moaned. "I wouldn't object, exactly, but," and he patted Akun's stomach, which caused another tremor.

"Yes, but," said Lady Mael, "I'd want to have him sucking you."

The thought was, somehow, blindingly erotic: Akun, probably on his knees, sucking him while he sucked his wife. " _Yes_ ," he said. "We'll do that."

"I," said Akun. "Can, but I'm. Not good at it."

"How 'not good'?" asked Lady Mael.

"Um. Teeth. Sometimes."

"You _do_ need practice. Fortunately, I have plenty of cocks for you to practice on."

"Yes."

"Mm," said Lady Mael. "I'm going to go offer those pants, and then I'm for bed. You two?"

"I'll, it's warm enough now, I'll probably fall asleep in two seconds. In a real bed," said Akun.

He was as good as his word, too, once they'd used the sanitary and brushed their teeth and settled into bed. Amusingly, while unconscious Akun almost immediately rolled into him and cuddled around him, spooning him from behind. Akun was taller, it wasn't like it'd work the other way around, so he allowed it and closed his eyes and opened himself a little to Fire.

He didn't mean to fall asleep like that, but he must have, because he woke when Lady Mael crawled into bed with them. "Shh, go back to sleep," she whispered. She felt slightly better than fine, her usual banked-coal self glowing more warmly.

"Everything okay?"

"Yes," she replied. "It was good."

It would have been phenomenally rude and also slightly sacrilegious to keep asking her, so he just nodded and opened an arm so she could snuggle in too. She fell asleep quickly, and then, satisfied, so did he.

**Author's Note:**

> As usual, no beta. Therefore, if there are ungrammatical sentences, or commas in the wrong place, or I used the wrong spelling, or whatever, please tell me! Also if I tagged inappropriately, or there are more tags/trigger warning needed.
> 
> This is an original, so more feedback it better! Tell me if you liked it. Or if you didn't, tell me what I can do in the future.


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